Using the Market to Control Health Insurance Costs
Posted: Monday, September 28, 2009
by Richard Vail
Chisel & Plane
If the Canadian health care system is so wonderful, why are they moving toward privatization? Under their system (on which most of the Democratic Bills now before Congress are being based on), it can take months if not years to get non-emergency surgery. The same system is in place in the United Kingdom.
Here's a recent example from British Columbia. A young woman named Christina Woodkey began to develop severe pain in her legs. It became so severe she couldn't do any of the those things that she had been able to do, like hiking, cross-country skiing. When she went to her local health clinic, the Calgary, Canada, resident was told she had to see a specialist. Unfortunately, because her problem wasn't life-threatening, she was told she'd have to wait at least a year BEFORE she could have elective surgery. Surgery that would improve her quality of life...after all, she was in pain day in, day out, but that surgery was considered ELECTIVE. So wait she did.
"When I was given that date, I asked when could I expect to have surgery," said Woodkey, 72. "They said it would be a year and a half after I had seen this doctor."\So early this month, she crossed the border and went to a clinic in Montana and had the $50,000 surgery done in two days, in an American hospital.
"I don't have insurance. We're not allowed to have private health insurance in Canada," Woodkey said. "It's not going to be easy to come up with the money. But I'm happy to say the pain is almost all gone."In Canada, private insurance is against the law and therefore unavailable. But, to get around the system, approximately 70 private clinics have been set up in British Columbia and Ontario to provide those "simple" things that the Canadian system refuses to provide in a timely fashion...things like MRI's and minor surgery. These procedures are provided in as little as a few weeks as opposed to the normal wait time of 9-12 months for most procedures.
This is the system that the Democratic Party wants to impose on America. It's a system that is predicated on your having to wait for health care that we are accustomed to receiving without any (or only a few weeks) time at all. Are there problems with our health care system?
Certainly, but by removing the obstacles that are in place at the moment, such as purging the barriers that prevent health insurance providers from providing health insurance across state borders. For example, in California just 6 health insurance providers are permitted to provide health insurance within that state. This barrier exists in my own state of Maryland as well. Additionally, by permitting small businesses, as well as individuals to band together and pool their seperate and thus limited resources, so that more companies can provide affordable insurance. Better yet, sever the link between employment and health insurance. Allow individuals to purchase their own insurance directly from health insurance companies.
Unfortunately, these are "market based" reforms and thus are despised by the socialist and liberal wings of the left who are enamared of government providing "efficient" delivery of services. these suggestions for reform have been put forward countless times in the past decade by the Republican Party, yet have been stymied by the left, because we all know the government can do things more efficiently than private industry.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Hi Richard.Your article is of social relevance. Imagine having to wait almost a year to have a surgery done! (Do they ask you, "are you having pain now or will you still have that pain 12 months from now?") Great article Richard. Well done.Best to you.NenitaWelcome to Searchwarp Writers' Community.Thanks Nenita, I appreciate the comment...now if we could only get our Congresscritters to follow this advice, but unfortunately for the country, I doubt they will. Instead, they'd blast a bigger hole in the side of the ship trying to fix the first one.
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